Kyiv's district administrative court on March 29 terminated the order of Ukraine's State Service for Geology and Deposits that suspended the gas production licenses of public joint-stock company Ukrnafta for three fields in Dnipropetrovsk region.

The press service of the authority reported that the licenses had been suspended under recommendations of Ukraine's State Fiscal Service over multibillion tax debts of the company to the national budget.

"We are outraged at the decision of the judges. The court in fact banned us from implementing our functions and reacting to blatant irregularities. Please note that over UAH 10 billion has not been paid to the national budget. The court decided that the state does not need money," acting head of the authority Mykola Boyarkin said.

The State Service for Geology and Deposits on January 26, 2016 suspended the oil and gas production licenses of Ukrnafta for Holubivske, Yuriyevske and Lopushnianske fields in Dnipropetrovsk region.

Naftogaz Ukrainy owns a 50% plus one share stake in Ukrnafta, a group of companies associated with the shareholders of PrivatBank (Dnipropetrovsk) holds about 42% of the shares.